Isis on the Nile. Egyptian Gods in Hellenistic and Roman Egypt

Isis on the Nile. Egyptian Gods in Hellenistic and Roman Egypt
Author:
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 394
Release: 2010-12-17
Genre: History
ISBN: 9004210865

The diffusion of the cults of Isis is recently again intensively studied. Research on this fascinating phenomenon has traditionally been characterised by its focus on L'Égypte hors d'Égypte, while developments in Hellenistic and Roman Egypt itself were often seen as belonging to a different domain. This volume tries to overcome that unhealthy dichotomy by studying the cults of Isis in Hellenistic and Roman Egypt itself in relation to developments in the Mediterranean at large. The book not only presents an overview of the most important deities, often based on new or unpublished material, but also pays ample attention to the cultural processes behind Isis on Nile, like relations between style and identity, religious choice, social- and cultural memory and Egypt’s view of its own past.

Isis on the Nile. Egyptian Gods in Hellenistic and Roman Egypt

Isis on the Nile. Egyptian Gods in Hellenistic and Roman Egypt
Author: Laurent Bricault
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 395
Release: 2010-12-17
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9004188827

Against the background of questions on cultural identity and memory, this book offers an overview of the development of the cults of Isis in Hellenistic and Roman Egypt, often presenting new or unpublished material.

Isis in the Ancient World

Isis in the Ancient World
Author: R. E. Witt
Publisher: JHU Press
Total Pages: 348
Release: 1997-07-15
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780801856426

The first study to document the extent and complexity of the cult's influence on Graeco-Roman and early Christian culture, R. E. Witt's acclaimed Isis in the Ancient World is now available in paperback Worship of the Egyptian goddess Isis dates as far back as 2500 B.C. and extended at least until the fifth century A.D. throughout the Roman world. The importance of her cult is attested to in Apuleius's Golden Ass, and evidence of its influence has been found in places as far apart as Afghanistan and Portugal, the Black Sea and northern England. The first study to document the extent and complexity of the cult's influence on Graeco-Roman and early Christian culture, R. E. Witt's acclaimed Isis in the Ancient World is now available in paperback.

Isis Pelagia: Images, Names and Cults of a Goddess of the Seas

Isis Pelagia: Images, Names and Cults of a Goddess of the Seas
Author: Laurent Bricault
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 402
Release: 2019-11-11
Genre: History
ISBN: 9004413901

In Isis Pelagia: Images, Names and Cults of a Goddess of the Seas, Laurent Bricault, one of the principal scholars of the cults of Isis, presents a new interpretation of the multiple sources that present Isis as a goddess of the seas. Bricault discusses a wealth of relatively unknown archaeological and textual data, drawing on a profound knowledge of their historical context. After decades of scholarly study, Bricault offers an important contribution and a new phase in the debate on understanding the “diffusion” as well as the “reception” of the cults of Isis in the Graeco-Roman world. This book, the first English-language monograph by the leading French scholar in the field, underlines the importance of Isis Studies for broader debates in the study of ancient religion.

Power, Politics and the Cults of Isis

Power, Politics and the Cults of Isis
Author:
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 384
Release: 2014-07-24
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9004278273

In the Hellenistic and Roman world intimate relations existed between those holding power and the cults of Isis. This book is the first to chart these various appropriations over time within a comparative perspective. Ten carefully selected case studies show that “the Egyptian gods” were no exotic outsiders to the Hellenistic and Roman Mediterranean, but constituted a well institutionalised and frequently used religious option. Ranging from the early Ptolemies and Seleucids to late Antiquity, the case studies illustrate how much symbolic meaning was made with the cults of Isis by kings, emperors, cities and elites. Three articles introduce the theme of Isis and the longue durée theoretically, simultaneously exploring a new approach towards concepts like ruler cult and Religionspolitik.

Greek Gods Abroad

Greek Gods Abroad
Author: Robert Parker
Publisher: Univ of California Press
Total Pages: 270
Release: 2017-06-06
Genre: History
ISBN: 0520293940

From even before the time of Alexander the Great, the Greek gods spread throughout the Mediterranean, carried by settlers and largely adopted by the indigenous populations. By the third century b.c., gods bearing Greek names were worshipped everywhere from Spain to Afghanistan, with the resulting religious systems a variable blend of Greek and indigenous elements. Greek Gods Abroad examines the interaction between Greek religion and the cultures of the eastern Mediterranean with which it came into contact. Robert Parker shows how Greek conventions for naming gods were extended and adapted and provides bold new insights into religious and psychological values across the Mediterranean. The result is a rich portrait of ancient polytheism as it was practiced over 600 years of history.

The Manichaean Church in Kellis

The Manichaean Church in Kellis
Author: Håkon Fiane Teigen
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 365
Release: 2021-06-08
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9004459774

The Manichaean Church in Kellis presents an in-depth study of social organisation within the religious movement known as Manichaeism in Roman Egypt. In particular, it employs papyri from Kellis (Ismant el-Kharab), a village in the Dakhleh Oasis, to explore the socio-religious world of lay Manichaeans in the fourth century CE. Manichaeism has often been perceived as an elitist, esoteric religion. Challenging this view, Teigen draws on social network theory and cultural sociology, and engages with the study of lived ancient religion, in order to apprehend how laypeople in Kellis appropriated Manichaean identity and practice in their everyday lives. This perspective, he argues, not only provides a better understanding of Manichaeism: it also has wider implications for how we understand late antique ‘religion’ as a social phenomenon

Egyptian Cultural Identity in the Architecture of Roman Egypt (30 BC-AD 325)

Egyptian Cultural Identity in the Architecture of Roman Egypt (30 BC-AD 325)
Author: Youssri Ezzat Hussein Abdelwahed
Publisher: Archaeopress Publishing Ltd
Total Pages: 232
Release: 2015-02-06
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1784910651

This volume considers the relationship between architectural form and different layers of identity assertion in Roman Egypt. It stresses the sophistication of the concept of identity, and the complex yet close association between architecture and identity.

Decoding the Osirian Myth

Decoding the Osirian Myth
Author: Panagiota Sarischouli
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
Total Pages: 554
Release: 2024-09-23
Genre: History
ISBN: 311143513X

The earliest written references to the Osirian myth-complex appeared already in the Pyramid Text spells (c. 2400–2300 BCE). The most complete exposition of this ancient Egyptian myth is, however, found in the Greek treatise On Isis and Osiris, in which the 2nd-century CE Platonist Plutarch utilises Egyptian mythology to advocate his philosophical ideas concerning the divine and the nature of the cosmos. This book aims at “decoding” Plutarch’s narrative of the Osirian myth, linking his claims to the existing Egyptian and Greek parallels. It thus analyses a multitude of mythic and religious traditions from a transcultural perspective, exploring the relation of the Pharaonic features of the Osirian divinities to the features they had acquired in Ptolemaic and Roman times, interpreting the Egyptian myth within the overall framework of parallel mythologies from other cultures, and examining whether the brief mythic stories (historiolae) recited in Late Egyptian ritual texts can be deployed to enrich the context of certain obscure episodes in Plutarch’s account of the myth. The book will be of great interest not only to scholars and students of Plutarch and later Middle Platonism, but also to Egyptologists. Due to its thematic variety and scope, this publication will also appeal to a wider array of readers (specialists and non-specialists alike) interested in religious syncretism, interreligious connections, and the challenge of multiculturalism from Hellenistic times until Late Antiquity.